1????????????Soul Bound
1.2??????????Taking Control
1.2.2????????An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.11?????PvP
The other musicians started one of their own tunes, and the dancing continued.
Kafana: “Igraine! That’s Igraine over there, the one whose corpse we found in the ghoul’s nest. I must return her flute to her. Omobono, do you want to stay here and carry on playing? I’ll just be a few meters away.”
Tomsk, behind Kafana’s back, mimed an atomic bomb exploding, while Bulgaria mimed cowering behind a couch and peeked out through a v-shaped crack in his fingers.
Omobono said, quite casually: “I thiiiink I’ll just follow along with you, yes?”
Alderney, Tomsk and Bulgaria nodded in unison and then lifted up their heads pretending to be innocently looking at things off in the distance, when Kafana turned and glared at them suspiciously.
They walked over together. Their steps in perfect unison.
Vittoria: “Kafana, you’re glowing. Do you think we have a chance to lift the curse?”
Kafana: “I think we have a good chance, though I want to speak to Olga before I give it a go, to see if she knows anything helpful. But before I do that, there’s a couple of things.”
She turned to Igraine.
Kafana: “Igraine, we came across something of yours, and want to return it to you.”
She produced the broken flute and held it out to Igraine on the palms of her hands. Igraine looked puzzled for a moment, then shrugged and picked it up.
Igraine: “Yeah, ok, thanks.”
Kafana: {Something strange is going on here. Omobono, would you lend her your flute? I want to hear her play.}
Omobono: “That broken flute was yours? It looked like it was once very beautiful.”
Igraine: “Um, yeah, I played it a lot.”
Omobono swept her a bow: “That is a tragedy I cannot allow on a joyful night like this one. Here, borrow mine I insist.”
Tomsk: “Play a tune for us.”
Alderney: “Hey, everybody, listen up. Igraine is going to play the flute for us all.”
They formed a circle around her, leaving her no route to retreat, standing there holding Omobono''s flute in her hands, like she had never held a flute before, let alone played one.
Omobono: {She is messaging me in private chat, saying she doesn’t feel up to it this evening.}
Kafana: {Sys, let’s see if Iron Fist will work on players. Aura on max, sweet talk, anything relevant, use all my skills.}
She drew out her diadem and put it on, meaningfully. Drawing herself to her full height, she looked down at Igraine. Putting as much command and certainty into her voice as she could, she visualised Igraine submitting, speaking the truth and pushed mana behind her intention.
Kafana: “Igraine. Look at me.”
Igraine’s head jerked up, eyes now fixed on Kafana’s. The gem of truth glowed neither red not green, but brilliant gold. Gold for Cov. Cov for justice.
Kafana: “Igraine. Speak the truth. Speak only the truth and do not lie. I will know.”
Kafana: “Igraine. You are not a member of Nevermere, are you?”
Igraine’s head jerked sideways. A shake of the head.
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Kafana: “Igraine. The note on your body, warning about an attack upon Pierrot. That was a trap, wasn’t it?”
A nod.
Kafana: “Igraine. A trap specifically for the Wombles, or for just for anyone who found it?”
Igraine spoke, in a whisper: “For you.”
A green glow. Truth.
Kafana: “You knew they meant to kill us. You aided them.”
Igraine, much louder in an agonised voice: “I didn’t have a choice!”
[Skill “Iron Fist” cannot rise above 14 until you learn an appropriate profession.]
Bulgaria, softly: “Tell us your story. Tell us what happened.”
Igraine: “They know who I am in arlife. The Immortals, that is. I had to give them my banking details when they paid me to mule items over from Divine Mountain. I’m not rich and my husband was sick. I liked my character there, but I needed the money more, so it seemed an easy choice. The right choice.”
Igraine: “But then they phoned me, used my real name. Said they had another task for me. That they wanted to test a new guild, the Wombles. Jincan and Kullervo met me in the game, gave me clothes to wear and escorted me out to the graveyard and into the sewers. None of the undead would go near Kullervo. Kullervo warned me to keep my mouth shut, and Jincan paralysed me. Then they left and the ghouls came. I flipped out. That’s all I know.”
Kafana felt horror: “You left your Vessel there to be eaten alive?”
Igraine: “It’s just a computer program. I’m real and I’m in real danger now, thanks to you. When they watch your livestream and see me talking, they’ll send someone to my real house to kill the real me and my real husband with real knives and there’ll be real blood.”
Omobono took his flute back from her, before she smashed it in her tightening grip.
Omobono: {Well, here’s a pretty dilemma. I have a 2 minute delay on my livestream. Do I kill this segment or not?}
Alderney: {Kill it. It won’t save her; there are other adventurers here watching, and word will get out. Too juicy a story not to. But it won’t be on your hands.}
Omobono: {Killed. And for pity’s sake, go do something I can broadcast, and quickly.}
Bulgaria: {I may be able to provide her some arlife help. Leave her to me. Go help Nicolo and Vittoria.}
Bulgaria and Tomsk closed in on Igraine. Vittoria looked like she wanted to slay Igraine without mercy, for Pierrot’s sake, and was raising her hand, gathering in shadow mana when Alderney intercepted her and led her off to explain.
Tomsk: {Omobono, we made some footballs, and were thinking of teaching Basso’s youth gangs how to play.}
Alderney: {Not in the middle of a camp, I think. How about you float the idea with a few of them, and arrange a time and location for an Orphanage vs Vecci friendly? Maybe we could fit a park and recreation area in the renewal plans? I bet they’d appreciate a swimming pool that didn’t have stumpers in, or leaches. A water slide, some trees for shade, maybe a bookstore-cafe showcasing the latest in adventurer cooking and ideas? Can most people here read? If not, we should set up a school. And a lending library. And a video arcade!}
Kafana and Omobono walked over to where she’d last seen Nicolo, while Kafana explained about Nicolo’s missing brother Antonio for the sake of Omobono’s viewers.
Nicolo was no longer there. He was standing with the musicians, singing a melodic love song in his pure high voice. She couldn’t interrupt that.
Bulgaria: {When we announce the Basso Renewal Project, put town planning up in your area of The Burrow and get ideas from everybody. Test them against an expert model of expected demand and growth. Remember the law of unexpected consequences.}
Alderney: {Like people wanting to use the swimming pool to water cows or wash clothes? Still, with enough thought there should be a way. Project management can be fun. Give it a room of its own and call it Sim Torello! We could tie it into people volunteering to take on running, or building particular bits. Use the adventurer''s guild building to set our own quests and to solicit feedback from locals. I’ll bounce it off Wellington, see what he thinks.}
Kafana: {Just bear in mind that funding is finite. The more the early stages are self-financing, the sooner we can launch Phase II. Popularity with people from Alto and Mercato willing to bring their own funds to the project is also a factor. It isn’t like we can build self-replicating golems to mine stone and expand the city out to sea. And, even if we could, should we? I’m worried enough about the impact of Bungo teaching chemistry to the Mages. They won’t stop at rubber. Columbina was optimistic, but what happens when a player decides the best defence against zombies is teaching the locals to make shotguns?}
Tomsk: {This gets my vote. We should definitely make tools to do this available on The Burrow, because we want people to get used to the mindset and start applying the same tools to arlife cities. Make the score of someone competing on the sim depend upon sustainable social impact over time, rather than city size or getting rich being the goal.}
Bulgaria: {Who gets to decide what social changes are positive rather than negative?}
Alderney: {The locals do. Our role is to help them make informed decisions and give them options they couldn’t even imagine were possible.}
Tomsk: {Free the minds and you change the world!}
Nicolo finished his song, but another was already starting. What had Bungo so busy he hadn’t joined in on the discussion? That wasn’t like him.
Kafana: “Let’s go see what Bungo’s up to.”